© Midia Ninja
Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has handed himself in to police after spending two nights at the metalworkers' union headquarters in São Paulo in defiance of an arrest warrant.
"I'm going to prove my innocence," Lula told a
large crowd of adoring supporters on Saturday at the building where he began his political career. "Do what you want, the powerful can kill one, two or 100 roses. But they'll never manage to stop the arrival of spring."
Afterwards, he was
carried on the shoulders of supporters shouting "Free Lula!" before being flown to the southern city of Curitiba where he will begin serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.
Military police in Curitiba later dispersed Lula supporters with rubber bullets and teargas when he arrived at a police station in the city.
RTMon, 09 Apr 2018 19:27 UTC
© Leah Millis / Reuters
US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has said that he will decide on potential actions against Syria within 24-48 hours in response to reports of an alleged chemical attack in Douma, East Ghouta.
Trump promised a swift response to the "heinous attack," saying that "this is about humanity and it can't be allowed to happen."
Comment: On Monday evening, President Donald Trump will
meet senior Pentagon officials with his new mega-hawk National Security Advisor John Bolton taking part. Bolton enters the office with a brand new pretext to bomb Syria.
Bolton, a key player in building the George W Bush administration's fraudulent case for attacking Iraq, starts his tenure in the Trump administration this week. One of the first matters requiring his advice will be America's reaction to a reported chemical-weapons attack in Syria. Reports of the alleged attack came from pro-jihadist sources and could not be confirmed by Red Crescent medics on the ground. But Trump has already threatened Syrian President Bashar Assad with consequences for the strike, and also invented an insulting nickname for him.
So what advice can Bolton - a man with a long record of advocating more military action against Syria, Iran, North Korea and whoever challenges America - give to his determined boss? We can only wonder, although some say digging fallout shelters may be a good idea now.
The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news website
reported that Jeish al-Islam commanders were waiting for the US military operations against Syria while violating the agreement to leave Douma in Eastern Ghouta.
Jeish al-Islam terrorists killed and wounded over 50 civilians with mortar attacks after violating the ceasefire deal and refrained from leaving Douma, provocating the Syrian army's response.
They also launched false-flag chemical operations in the region and killed and wounded hundreds of civilians to raise allegations against the Syrian army.
Analysts believe that all moves made by the terrorists in Douma in the past two days were based on a pre-planned scenario by the US, the western states and supporters of terrorist groups in Syria to find a pretext for Washington to launch military operations against Damascus.
The Russian military command suddenly
puts troops on full combat alert, movements of combat vehicles and missile systems observe almost all over the country.
An activity of Russian troops is most notable in the Western part of Russia, near the borders with Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus, as well as in the Transbaikal region and the Far East. On April 8-9 active movements of a large number of military vehicles and tanks, also were seen moving of the Iskander missile systems with Air Defence support.
Some source reported about deploying command and control systems on main military naval bases and military airfields.
Russian defence officials refused to comment on any moving of troops.
© Sputnik/ Iliya Pitalev
A Su-22 fighter jet at the Syrian Air Force base in Homs province
A T-4 airbase in the Syrian province of Homs has been hit by a missile strike, local media reported, suspecting the United States. However, Pentagon did not confirm the reports of involvement.
A Syrian T-4 airbase in the Homs province has been hit by rocket fire, according to SANA news. According to the agency, the strike caused casualties. It was also reported that the Syrian Air Defense Force opened fire on the upcoming missiles and intercepted several.
Comment: A reminder from
The Saker:
We have no facts. Some reports say that the USA attacked, other that it was Israel or even France. The truth is that we won't know for sure for at least 24 hours. Whoever attacked will present that as a huge success. Don't believe it! The last time around it took several days to find out what really happened.
Also, at least so far, I hear about "5 cruise missiles". If that is the truth, then this is a totally symbolic act, which is good. There might be much much more before dawn, but we have to wait and see. If the French or Israelis did it, that is also good news (more symbolic nonsense which both of these countries love to engage in).
[Sidebar: if the Americans go for the real thing, we will see *hundreds* of missiles just in the first wave, so all this 5 (or 8) missiles stuff is very very good news indeed (at least compared to what it could be!)]
Update: Massive explosions
were heard in the eastern countryside of the Homs Governorate, tonight, after unknown jets entered Syrian airspace from Lebanon.
According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian Air Defense system was deployed from the Mezzeh Air Base after the jets entered Syria from Lebanon's Beqa'a Valley.
Some early reports indicate that the jets were Israeli, as this is the route they usually take before bombing the Syrian military.
There is still no confirmation regarding the cause of the blasts or if the warplanes were Israeli or U.S.
The Israeli government
has refused to respond to reports of a missile strike on a Syrian airbase in Homs province, which it had earlier bombed in February.
According to the pan-Arab TV channel Al-Mayadeen, an Israeli surveillance plane was spotted over the base in Homs at the moment of the rocket strike.
"An Israeli reconnaissance plane was overflying the T-4 airbase in Homs struck by missiles," the broadcaster reported, citing sources.
It has also reported that the missiles were coming from the Mediterranean Sea through Lebanon. At the same time, Israel, which bombed the same base in February, has abstained from commenting on the incident.
Update: Reports
have been circulating that Hezbollah and Iranian military personnel were among some of the casualties suffered in an Israeli missile strike against the Syrian T-4 airbase on very early Monday morning.
According to the Russian military, the strike saw Israeli F-15's fire eight cruise missiles at the T-4 site of which five were intercepted by Syrian air defenses before hitting their intended marks - the remaining 3 missiles are said to have struck the western part of the military airport.
Up to fourteen military personnel, including Iranians, present at the T-4 airbase may have been killed in the missile attack says a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Israeli Defense Forces
have accused Iran of controlling the Tiyas airbase, from which the army said the Iranian drone was shot down over northern Israel.
"Iran and the Quds Force [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' special unit] for some time have been operating the T-4 Air Base in Syria next to Palmyra, with support from the Syrian military and with permission from the Syrian regime," the IDF's statement read.
Israel claimed that the base was used by the Quds Force to transport sophisticated weaponry to "Syria, Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in the region."
Update 9 April 2018 - 11am CET
The Russian MoD
states that Israel launched 8 missiles from 2 fighter jets, and that 5 of them were 'intercepted':
In a statement on Monday, the Russian military said: "Two Israeli Air Force F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles at the T-4 airfield." The Israeli aircraft did not enter Syrian airspace and launched the strikes while flying over Lebanon.
"Syrian air defense units have shot down five guided missiles," the military said, but confirmed that three of the missiles "reached the western part of the airfield."
The Israeli embassy in Moscow refused to comment on the Russian Defense Ministry's report, Alex Gandler, the diplomatic mission's press attache, told Sputnik.
Update: FARS reports that 4
Iranians were
killed: Seyed Ammar Moussavi, Medi Lotfi Niyasar, Akbar Zawwar Jannati, and Mehdi Dehqan Yazdeli. Not the "up to 14" reported by SOHR.
After the missile attack, the ISIS pocket in east Homs tried to launch an
offensive (Israel is ISIS's air force, after all).
While the Israeli military has been largely silent - saying they have "
no comment" on the Russian statement - 2 U.S. officials have reportedly confirmed it to NBC, saying that Israel had
notified the U.S. of its intention to launch the attack.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry has written a
letter to the UN Secretary General:
"The Israeli attack constitutes an indirect response to the success of the Syrian Arab Army in eliminating armed terrorist groups from the Damascus suburbs and other Syrian areas," the Syrian Foreign Ministry wrote in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres obtained by Syria's SANA news agency.
"These groups helped to kill the Syrian people, abduct civilians and use them as human shields. Three thousand shells in just three months have led to the deaths of 155 citizens and wounded 865 civilians, mostly women and children."
The letter states that there will be "serious repercussions" for Israel's attack, reaffirming that Syria "will not hesitate to exercise its right to defend its territory, people and sovereignty in all the ways guaranteed by the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of international humanitarian law and international law."
The letter also called upon the UN Security Council to "condemn these blatant Israeli aggressions and to take resolute and immediate action to prevent the recurrence of such attacks."
© Xinhua/Gary Hershorn
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in New York, the United States, on Jan. 11, 2017
The US foreign policy establishment is gradually shifting its focus from the Middle East to the Far East, but the unexpected election of Donald Trump has thrown a wrench in the elitist plan to pivot to Asia. Trump wants to fundamentally change Washington's approach to policy, that is, he wants to abandon the destabilizing wars and regime change operations that have characterized US policy in the past and work collaboratively with countries like Russia that have a mutual interest in establishing regional security and fighting terrorism.
This has not been warmly received in Washington, in fact, Trump's recommendations have triggered a firestorm among elites who now believe that he is a serious threat to their interests. Recent attacks in the media and preemptive provocations with Russia, suggest that an effort to remove the new president from office is already underway. We expect that these attacks will only intensify in the weeks ahead. Here's an excerpt from the speech Trump delivered in Cincinnati on December 1 that is the source of the controversy:
© REUTERS/ STRINGER
According to Syrian Army reports, militants in Eastern Ghouta planned a chemical attack provocation to put blame on Damascus.
Syrian government forces found a clandestine workshop for the manufacture of chemical munitions while sweeping through the village of Aftris in Eastern Ghouta after militants withdrew from the community,
Syrian Arab Army Colonel Feruz Ibrahim told reporters on Monday.
"Presumably, the equipment of these munitions could be produced as part of a false flag accusation that government troops used chemical weapons," he said.
© Reuters / Bassam Khabieh
Smoke rises from the besieged Eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria
The Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation said Monday it had received information that terrorists in Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta were preparing a possible provocation involving the use of chemical warfare agents.
According to the center's commander Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, a resident of Eastern Ghouta called the center's "hotline" on Monday to report that Nusra Front (
a terrorist group banned in Russia) militants had installed on a roof of a building and tested a turbine, placing tightly sealed containers with poisonous substances nearby.
© AFP 2018/ Msallam ABDALBASET
According to the Arabic-language news channel al-Manar, citing al-Ikhbariyah, the White Helmets group has been preparing for another provocation against the Syrian government.
The White Helmets group, which claims to be an impartial humanitarian NGO saving lives in Syria, has reportedly distributed masks in Eastern Ghouta to protect civilians from a chemical gas attack. The group, also known as Syrian Civil Defense, has allegedly been creating a new plot to blame another chemical attack on the Syrian government, al-Manar reported.
Last week the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation announced that it had received information from a local resident that Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) terrorists and White Helmets were preparing to stage a provocation, involving the use of chemical weapons in Idlib in order to blame the government for the attack on civilians.
Paul Antonopoulos
Fort RussSun, 25 Feb 2018 13:49 UTC
Just a mere few hours ago I reported from my Twitter account that the White Helmets, according to Syrian intelligence, were preparing allegations that the Syrian military had dropped chemical weapons in East Ghouta to the east of Damascus center.
© AFP 2018/ Amer Almohibany
An infamous NGO that was repeatedly accused of falsifying information about its operations and essentially working as a propaganda outlet for anti-government militants in Syria, now claims that Damascus deployed chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta.
The notorious White Helmets group claims that the Syrian government deployed chlorine gas against the town of Al-Shifoniya in Eastern Ghouta, killing one child and causing "widespread suffocation" among the local civilians, Anadolu Agency reports.
The White Helmets, a group that styles itself as an NGO seeking to ease the plight of civilians in Syria suffering from the ongoing conflict in the country, has previously been accused of falsifying information about its work in Syria and staging "rescue" attempts in its propaganda videos.
© Russia Ministry of Defense/Youtube
Major General Igor Konashenkov and Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy
Today, Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy and spokesman of the Russian Defence Ministry Major General Igor Konashenkov held briefing in the National Centre for State Defence Control.
According to Sergei Rudskoy, in late February, situation in the Eastern Ghouta, suburbs of Damascus, has been complicated due to actions of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization and other armed formations joined to it. These armed formations activated military actions against the government troops and intensified shelling of living quarters of Damascus.
Acting strict to the UN Security Council Resolution 2401 dating from February 24, the Syrian government troops are eliminating Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists taken position in the Eastern Ghouta.
In order to prevent casualties among civilians, under the auspices of the Russian Reconciliation Centre, the humanitarian pause has been established since February 28. Humanitarian corridors have been organized in order to let civilians leave the area as well as to evacuate injured from the Eastern Ghouta.
Comment: See also: